A politician who makes ridiculous inflammatory statements during press conferences or news broadcasts solely for the purpose of gaining attention and trying to remain relevant to voters who are ill informed and have low information. Their purpose is to distract from the real important issues that they are supposed to be dealing with and distracting voters and the news media away from primary scandals and real issues that are going on. Their stories are intended to anger or cause fear to sway voters, if nothing more than for short term public opinion and votes.

The political troll is always present in the legislative branch, as if they are trying to be all three branches government by themselves. About once a month, another political troll in the U.S. congress or some state legislature comes up with another "scandal" that actually turns out to be baseless and not consistent with any factual information, in an attempt to start another foreign war or discredit another politician or hurt an opponent's credibility.